Today’s BBC news report will have made difficult watching for UK house builders, in particular, @Barrattplc executives.
Hopefully, the
@BBCNews piece, along with Wednesday’s publication of the Phase 2 Grenfell Inquiry report, will cause government and industry to rethink current remediation policy and come to a new agreement that removes all combustible material from peoples’ homes, leaving them with flats that are insurable, mortgageable and sellable.
The percentage of buildings assessed as needing remediation constructed by the UK’s leading developers is absolutely lamentable—35% for @Barrattplc ; 43% for Bellway; 69% for
@CrestNicholson and 77% for
@TaylorWimpey and a great deal of work is needed to restore customer trust.
In the case of
@BarrattHomes, the big question is how domestic and overseas buyers will react to a developer doggedly determined to keep some panels containing combustible material in place at all costs, even though their exact composition is unknown.
Barratt executives will be more aware than most of the grave dangers to the survival of the business that a catastrophic loss of trust can have. In 1983 and 1984 Barratt was hit by two successive ITV World in Action programmes, the first criticising timber framed housing and the latter, starter homes. Questions were even raised in the House [
api.parliament.uk/historic-h…] Within two years, sales had more than halved and it took more than twenty years before Barratt surpassed its June 1983 high of 16,500 completions.
Barratt’s London projects are most at risk. With domestic demand flagging, the company has turned to Asian and middle eastern buyers to support its projects in the capital. A loss of confidence from overseas buyers could delay projects and even make some unviable. Clearly it is in Barratt’s interest to practically demonstrate that it has learned from past mistakes and will ensure that legacy customers are left with flats that are insurable, mortgageable and sellable.
#BuildingSafetyCrisis #Grenfell @PhilH23 @TedBaillieu